Guest column: Florida must reform its flawed death penalty

Every once in a while an issue comes along that presents an opportunity for genuine cooperation across the ideological chasm.

One such opportunity, a fix to part of Florida’s broken death penalty system, is now before the Legislature.

This rare opportunity should not be missed.

Whether one is an opponent of the death penalty (as the ACLU surely is) or a proponent of state executions, we should all insist that the possibility of horrible and irreversible error in Florida’s implementation of the death penalty is minimized.

That is the point of legislation pending in both Florida’s House and Senate — Senate Bill 334 and House Bill 467 — both titled “Sentencing in Capital Felonies.”

Sadly, it does not appear that either chamber is willing to take up this issue.

REQUIRE UNANIMOUS JURY VOTE

The proposed legislation, which is also supported by the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops and the American Civil Liberties Union, would require that death sentences be recommended by a unanimous jury — just as a unanimous jury is required for a guilty verdict.

Of those states that use the death penalty, Florida and Delaware are the only states in which a simple majority (for example, a 7-5 vote) can recommend death.

All other death penalty states — except Alabama, which requires a vote of 10 of 12 jurors — require a unanimous jury recommendation for death.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center’s 2013 year-end report, Florida was No. 2 in both death sentences (15) and executions (seven).

California led in new death sentences with 24, though California has a moratorium on executions and has executed no one since 2006.

There is a relationship between the number of mistakes and the fact that a simple majority of a jury can vote to recommend death.

LEADING IN EXONERATIONS

Critically, while No. 2 in death sentences, Florida is No. 1 in the nation for the number of inmates released from Death Row due to exonerations, mistakes, prosecutorial error and misconduct (24 since 1979), an error rate that should be unacceptable to all Floridians

Since 2006, the Florida Supreme Court has not overturned any death sentence in which a jury recommended death by a unanimous 12- 0 vote.

Both the U.S. and the Florida supreme courts have admonished the Legislature to require a unanimous jury recommendation. If the Legislature wants to preserve the use of capital punishment, they are best advised to heed this admonition before the courts take the death penalty out of their hands.

I am not blind to the polarization on many important issues of the day, including the death penalty (though public opinion — based largely on the documentation of errors — has been shifting away from support for state-sanctioned executions).

In the last few years, Maryland, Connecticut and New Mexico have abolished the death penalty.

And worldwide, for all practical purposes the use of the death penalty has been abolished in practice with the exception of China, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

But put aside (if we can) the extent to which so many of us may be locked in a “culture war” debate about the merits and morality of the death penalty. Opponents and proponents should be able to agree that if we are to have the death penalty, surely we should minimize the possibility of error.

With a week to go in the 2014 Legislative session, please speak up.

Contact the members of Northeast Florida’s legislative delegation and urge that they not lose this opportunity for needed reform.

Urge them to support the bipartisan bills SB 334 and HB 467 to reform Florida’s death penalty system.

Howard Simon of Miami is executive director of the Florida office of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Not to accuse the ACLU of subterfuge but perhaps, just maybe this gets them halfway to their goal.
I'm guessing that jury selection voir dire does not address sentencing options.
Even if it does, just one juror has to oppose the death penalty in general principle for it to be excluded.
So death penalties will become significantly less common and probably rare even in situations where a horrible act is proven without a shadow of a doubt.
It is a major step toward eliminating the death penalty option.